Always wondered and I'm sure it's been discuss somewhere. Should we think of play by play unfolding as the game goes on or are stats/outcome "instantaneous" and then the play by play is build around that outcome?

there is some uncertainty around the pbp... most of it is window dressing, but some things like substitution patterns and fatigue rates are real &amp; valuable. its unclear if the pbp actually even lines up with the outcomes in the engine states, ive had mixed feelings, but *mostly* i think it does. when i say line up, i mean like, if you boil down to the essence. when it says player X makes the hook shot... you should read that as simply "player X makes the shot". im not convinced things like shooting over the double team and turnovers are actually even reflective of how those things work in the sim engine. i tried to figure out half court press efficiency once and concluded either 1) its worthless or 2) the pbp is too ****** to use in that manner. i think both are actually close to the truth and never decided which camp i fell in there. other things like who got the assist probably reflect the box score, but as those elements are window dressing in and of themselves, you cant expect any better from the pbp.

anyway i would think of the play by play as an attempt to spice up what happens in the engine. whether its printed on the fly or after the fact.... there was once a discussion and admin said something like the pbp was just an afterthought attempt to create something interesting that is roughly in line with the actual outcome - which suggested the ENTIRE pbp was complete window dressing and maybe even 100% useless. it was like he was saying it was generated after the fact and was just for amusement. but the admins are notorious for making confusing statements and then are nowhere to be found to clarify, so nobody really knew. i am fairly confident the pbp is *not* 100% useless but you have to be pretty careful in how much stock you put in anything in the PBP. also because its so much easier to generate the PBP on the fly, than to just try to create one in line with the results after the fact - i have to believe its mostly generated on the fly.

I would be shocked if it was complete window dressing. This is because simulating a "fake" PBP that matches a previously simulated box score would probably be harder than just simulating a real PBP from which the box score was then derived. The fake PBP, would have so many constraints -- it would be challenging to pull off.

Posted by rgerkin on 8/5/2013 7:38:00 PM (view original):I would be shocked if it was complete window dressing. This is because simulating a "fake" PBP that matches a previously simulated box score would probably be harder than just simulating a real PBP from which the box score was then derived. The fake PBP, would have so many constraints -- it would be challenging to pull off.